• fonix232@fedia.io
    35·
    7 days ago

    No, that’s the evolution of venture capitalism.

    Step 1: groundbreaking service comes in that fills a market hole

    Step 2: people flock to service

    Step 3: service gets VC funding to continue operations, subsidising the users

    Step 4: service gets “copied”, competitors crop up, use VC funding to eke out their own marketshare while making things worse for everyone but themselves

    Step 5: expansion plateaus as interest in service generalises (basically, everyone who could be interested, is already using it)

    Step 6: VC funding depletes, company has to start making a profit - leading to price hikes, which is followed by other players in the market as that’s how capitalism works

    Step 7: price hikes not being enough, service tries to capitalise on their userbase (think restricting features to a higher paid tier, introducing new tiers that strip away features, introducing ads, etc.)

    Step 8: market is saturated with plateaud services, user movement is minimal, and everybody hates it because it’s expensive, and reintroduced the same problem the initial innovative service meant to fix.

    • SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world
      1·
      5 days ago

      No different than what all these AI services are trying to inject into culture right this moment.

    • heartSagan5@lemmy.zip
      21·
      7 days ago

      Sure, but Netflix was not venture capital as far as I know. It started with mailing subscriptions then grew into greatness and now, it’s shittier than ever.

      • fonix232@fedia.io
        1·
        7 days ago

        You know wrong.

        Even in the early days (97-01), they’ve used venture funding (approx $80mil) for the DVD mailing business.

        And the reason they didn’t really go the VC funding way later is because they had an IPO in 2002, which meant instead of relying on VC funds, they took on massive amounts of debt to allow the takeoff of streaming.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
      1·
      4 days ago

      Also bookmark Stremio. It can stream torrents if you use the Torrentio addon. And if you pay for a debrid service like alldebrid or realdebrid it can easily stream 4K Blu-ray remux files.

      • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
        21·
        6 days ago

        Different providers? Plex has hosted content and a handful of features that jellyfin doesn’t. Also some people have the lifetime Plex pass. Also also, it may be a hosted Plex/jellyfin server that OP doesn’t operate locally and hosts different content.

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
      6·
      7 days ago

      There are pirate streaming services that are just as good as the paid ones, get everything the same day, and are completely free.

      I have no problem giving my money to an honest streaming service. There are none left. It’s all greed.

        • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
          1·
          7 days ago

          Let’s be honest though. Nobody “absolute must pay”.

          I’m on rural Internet. I pay for 50mb down. That’s all I get on satellite.

          I’m watching the Jays game right now. It buffered once in the 2nd inning for 2 seconds and has been flawless since. Why would I pay $25-40 a month for the same quality?

          • stevles@aussie.zoneEnglish
            1·
            7 days ago

            You need to expand your mindset to include other people. I’m sure 80-year-old Edna does not share your tech savviness.

            • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
              1·
              5 days ago

              Watching tv is beyond her tech savviness? It’s actually easier. I just open website, click channel, watch tv.

      • TeNppa@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        6 days ago

        Being from non english speaking country, the pirate streaming services don’t have dubbed content on our language. It’s not a problem for me personally, but it’s a problem if you have children.

        • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
          1·
          6 days ago

          That’s quite a fair point. I’ve never had to hunt down other languages but I’m sure there are free services out there that do.

  • Trump Rapes Kids@lemmy.world
    121·
    7 days ago

    Worse than that, since they killed the sharing off now a Netflix account isn’t your account, it’s an account you buy for one “household” location using one internet connection.

    If you try to sign in to netflix on hotel tvs it won’t let you, because that isn’t part of your “household.” If you have multiple internet connections in your house you can have that same issue inside your own home, because Netflix will decide the internet connection you use most is your “household” connection and the other one doesn’t count as being in your “household” even if it’s in the next room.

    If you travel a lot or have an atypical internet setup in your own house Netflix will deny you access and tell you to buy a subscription for that location.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
      9·
      6 days ago

      besides the sharing, netflix cancelling alot of shows after 1,2,3 seasons is enough not to subscribe to it, plus the enormous amounts of time between seasons.

      • Tuxman@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        6 days ago

        Back in my days, seasons would end for summer and you knew the cliffhanger would be resolved next season in the fall lineup

        • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
          2·
          5 days ago

          with a healthy amount of episodes usually around 15-20 for the year, instead of 8 per 2 years, or more, its the streaming penny pinching.

      • justme@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        6 days ago

        I’m not disagreeing with you, just wanted to mention that this is not necessary their fault. i got super mad when they cancelled a series i was watching more through. turned out that the owner of the show (i think Paramount) just cancelled all contracts to stream it exclusively on their platform.

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.techEnglish
    12·
    7 days ago

    Hey now, back when they cancelled sharing I cancelled my Netflix, and eeeeeveryone else said they were going to as well. Mines still cancelled, apparently others buckled? That’s on them.